For the Encouragement of Learning
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For the Encouragement of Learning Copyright 1710-2010 Anniversary Forum London, 9 April 2010 “For the Encouragement of Learning” The world’s first copyright law was passed by the English Parliament on 10 April 1710 as ‘An Act for the Encouragement of Learning’. The Queen Anne Statute, as it is known, marked the beginning of modern copyright law. Professor Gillian Davies, author of ‘Copyright and the Public Interest’, describes it as ‘the foundation upon which the modern concept of copyright in the Western world was built’, quoting Halsbury’s ‘Laws of England’, edited by Lord Hailsham, as saying, ‘In changing the conceptual nature of copyright, it became the most important single event in copyright history’ and Barbara Ringer, US Registrar of Copyrights, as saying, ‘It is the mother of us all, and a very possessive mother at that.’ The 300th anniversary provides a unique opportunity to review copyright’s purposes and principles. If today we were starting from scratch, but with the same aim of encouraging learning‚ what kind of copyright would we want? To answer this question, the British Council is organising a series of meetings in London, Shanghai and elsewhere. Our starting point is the question, What is the purpose of copyright? And, once that is agreed, even tentatively, how could we achieve it? Is the list of ‘qualifying works’ the right one? Should copyright arise automatically or should rights be registered? Is ‘copyright’ the appropriate name? How do we balance access and ownership? What are the optimal lengths of copyright terms? What is the role of moral rights, and of personal data and privacy? What do we mean by ‘fair’ in the phrases ‘fair dealing’ and ‘fair use’ and how do we uphold this fairness in practice? Is fairness in a physical world different from fairness in the digital space? How do we define unlawful copying and how do we promote a fair regime of sanctions and penalties? The possibilities of creating and copying have expanded dramatically in recent years. Digital technology is not only an astonishing technical change but has sparked profound changes in the relationships between individuals, business and the public domain. To start the debate we invited a wide range of people to contribute ideas, proposals and suggestions. We are deeply grateful to all those whose contributions are included here. During the London Forum and throughout the year we will be adding more. John Howkins Chair of the Copyright 1710-2010 Forum List of Contributors Jay Aldeguer President and CEO, The Islands Group, Cebu, Philippines Americo Amorim CEO, MusiGames Studio, Brazil Amelia Andersdotter Member of the Piratpartiet, Sweden, and Member Elect of the European Parliament Hasan Bakhshi Director, Creative Industries Yochai Benkler Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School, and author of ‘The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom’ Peter Bloch Members of CAS-IP, the intellectual property focal point of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research Dame Lynne Brindley DBE Chief Executive, The British Library Dr Ian Brown Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford Shuckri Bundakji CEO, DNMconnect and a licence holder of Universal Publishing Production Music for the Middle East & North Africa. He is a former CEO for SonyBMG covering Middle East and North Africa Kay Chapman Members of CAS-IP, the intellectual property focal point of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research Farooq Chaudhry Producer with Akram Khan Company, London Jez Collins Birmingham City University Ruth Daniel Fat Northerner Records and Un-Convention Cory Doctorow Science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger, the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the bestselling TorTeens/HarperCollins UK novel ‘Little Brother’ Andrew Dubber Birmingham City University Bronac Ferran Writer and part-time Senior Tutor, Research in Innovation Design Engineering, Royal College of Art, London Professor Brian Fitzgerald Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation, Law Faculty, Queensland University of Technology Alex Fleetwood Director of Hide&Seek Productions, London Tim Frain Director of IPR Regulatory Affairs, Nokia Gao Fuping Professor of Law, and Dean of Intellectual Property School, East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai Volker Grassmuck Sociologist and media researcher and organiser of Wizards of OS Ramy Habeeb Director and Co-Founder of Kotobarabia, the first online e- bookstore that specialises exclusively in Arab content Richard Halkett Director of Strategy & Research, Global Education, Cisco Systems Andy Heath MBE Director, Beggars Group, and Chair of UK Music Anna Higgs Producer at Quark, London John Howkins Author of ‘Creative Economy’ and ‘Creatives Ecologies’ and Chairman of BOP Consulting and Howkins & Associates, Shanghai Peter Jenner Emeritus President of the International Music Managers Forum (IMMF) Octavio Kulesz Digital publisher, Editorial Teseo, Buenos Aires Rok Kvaternik CEO, Ernst Klett Publishers, Ljubljana Lawrence Lessig Director, Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, and a Professor of Law, Harvard Law School. His latest book is ‘Remix’ Gerard Lemos Partner at Lemos & Crane. Ronaldo Lemos Director, Center for Technology and Society, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Brazil Simona Levi Based at Conservas and organiser of the Cultural Forum, Barcelona, which produced the Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge Li Heng Board Chairperson and CEO of Beijing International Copyright Trade Center, and Executive General Secretary of China International Copyright Expo Ian Livingstone Life President, Eidos Juan Mateos-Garcia Research Fellow, Policy & Research Unit, NESTA Mark Meharry Co-founder of Music Glue, a London-based digital services company Anita Ondine Writer and producer of immersive stories, known as transmedia' experiences, that fuse film, TV, web, mobile and gaming into integrated storyworlds Jon Pettigrew Founder of Maxus Dr Frances Pinter Publisher of Bloomsbury Academic Lord Puttnam CBE Labour Peer Gail Rebuck Chairman and CEO, The Random House Group Francesca Re Manning Members of CAS-IP, the intellectual property focal point of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research David Rowan Editor of ‘Wired UK’ magazine Mark Shuttleworth African entrepreneur with a love of technology, innovation, change and space flight Jeremy Silver Digital media adviser and entrepreneur who has focused on the music industry for the last fifteen years Adam Singer Media executive and adviser and Chairman of the British Screen Advisory Council Hardesh Singh Finalist of the 2008 International Young Music Entrepreneur Award organised by the British Council Martin Smith Managing Director, West Bridge Consulting, and formerly Chair of the Young Vic Theatre Company Lynne Spender Writer who has recently completed her PhD on copyright and digital culture Tamara Tatishvili Head of the National Film Centre of Georgia Bill Thompson Technology critic and blogs at andfinally.com Jimmy Wales Co-founder of Wikipedia The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is a UN agency with 184 member states Derek Wyatt MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (1997-2010) Contributions Jay Aldeguer, President and CEO, The Islands Group, Philippines Starting from Scratch, What Kind of Copyright do We Want Today? The retail/fashion industry is witness to the proliferation of design piracy due to the minimal or even no protection afforded by law to original authors of fashion works including clothing and shirt design. Knocking-off is rampant in the fashion industry and with the advent of technology by which high-quality copied designs can speedily be recreated, there comes a point where a consumer may not even be clear which designer created the original and which designer merely copied it. Design piracy, in effect, lowers the sales volume and affects the business of the original designer because of the cheaper imitated version made available as an alternative for tightly-budgeted consumers. Due to the aforementioned predicament, I would want a copyright legislation that would give a clearer and stronger protection to authors of original designs and works of fashion. Said law should impose stricter penalties for violators or imitators of these fashion design originals. But equally important to the substantive facet of the copyright laws is the promotion of awareness about these laws and the respective rights of the creative designers and authors. This is especially the case for third world countries where most designers may be more concerned on the income generation or business aspect of their design rather than the protection of their intellectual property rights. Americo Amorim is Chief Executive Officer of MusiGames Studio Proposals for Copyright in the 21st Century I propose: 1. Freedom of physical media. If the user acquires a licence for a song, book, etc, he can use it anywhere he wants (MP3 player, cellphone, e-book reader, computer, etc). 2. Compulsory licensing. There should be a universal way for a licensor, say a game developer, to go to one place and clear all the rights (say, the publishing and master recordings) for any song from any publisher or label. Something similar to how collecting agencies work for public broadcasting. 3. The user needs to try the content before buying; say, by listening to the whole song for one time, instead of only 30 seconds.